The original Art of Noise, but, being of a pre-sampler era, the noise was made by hand. The Lizards were a "band" from the late 1970s and into the next decade. One of the more interesting offshoots of punk, in which Head Lizard, composer David Cunningham, instead of doing the three-bar-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust trip of those who formed bands, applied his proclivity towards avant-garde musics (of the Eno/Cage axes; Cunningham's first such recordings pre-date the Lizards) toward the medium of the pop vinyl artifact.

The Lizards was just Cunningham, plus original "vocalist" Deborah (a.k.a. Deborah Lizard; real name Deborah Evans). There was a swirling cast of guest musicians over the years, like avant-garde personages Steve Beresford and David Toop, plus cool people like Robert Fripp, Patti Paladin, and scribe-turned-chantoozy Vivien Goldman. Their first 45 (1978) was a nothing-like-the-original cover of "Summertime Blues", but their biggest hit was their version, a year later, of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)", an early Motown hit from the pen of Berry Gordy.

Their albums were a combination of covers and of original material, and that probably didn't sit well with those who just wanted to hear an entire LP of wacky reworkings of rock and roll classics; the final LP, Top Ten, was a too-late attempt at appeasement. Cunningham has also worked as a producer over the years, including an album by punk-semilegend Wayne/Jayne County, and several by composer Michael Nyman, a former Lizards collaborator; he also has engineering credits for recordings by fellow-fringers This Heat, one of whose first LPs was released on Cunningham's Piano Records.

Post-Lizards collaborations include works with such disparate individuals as Johnny Thunders, Michael Giles and Jamie Muir of past King Crimsons, Henry Cow's John Greaves, and Thurston Moore.